Roland Ships VA-76 V-Arranger Keyboard76-Note Performance Keyboard with VariPhrase Technolgy  March 7, 2002
Roland is now shipping its most
powerful arranger keyboard in their history: the flagship 76-Note VariPhrase
Arranger Keyboard. As the successor to Roland's G-Series
Arranger Workstations, this intelligent arranger offers Roland's latest
sounds and music styles, and features exclusive VariPhrase
technology that can add realistic vocals and audio sampling to any
arrangement.
The VA-76 is Roland's most powerful and flexible arranger. It
features 128-voice polyphony, a whopping 3,649 GM2/GS-compatible sounds,
and 116 drum kits that use stereo sampled waveforms and ambient effects
to achieve a new level of realism. Separate Reverb, Chorus and EQ
processors - plus 89 multi-effects - provide all of the effects processing a
player could need.
The VA-76's sports a 76-note, synth-weighted, velocity- and
aftertouch-sensitive keyboard, plus six dedicated buttons that let users
easily change keyboard parts. Its large, icon-based touchscreen makes the
VA-76 is simple to use; it can also display song lyrics stored on
compatible SMF (Standard MIDI File) disks. Recalling frequently used
sounds is a snap with the five Super Tones buttons, and the Virtual Band
feature helps users create just the right instrument setup. The VA-76
also offers cool performance features including a ribbon controller and
light-sensing D-Beam controller that lets players shape their music via
hand and body motions over an infrared beam of light.
It may sound impossible, but the VA-76 is the world's first 76-note
arranging keyboard that can actually "sing" via its proprietary
VariPhrase sound engine. This technology can produce realistic vocal
performances with independent control of the voices' pitch, time and
formant. With Upper and Lower parts, the VariPhrase section lets players
re-pitch, re-phrase or re-harmonize any of the 48 onboard vocal samples
as they play. Vocal parts can also be recorded into any existing SMF.
With its 6MB of onboard sample RAM, users can store their own samples?up
to 16 of them?right inside the VA-76, and shape them using VariPhrase.
Additional samples can be loaded using the internal Zip drive from the
included Zip disk, or from optional VP-Z-Series VariPhrase Sound Library
disks.
The VA-76's 128 preset styles cover a wide range of musical genres. Users can customize the styles using the Style
Orchestrator or create brand-new custom styles using the 8-part
SMF-to-Style converter. The Style Morphing feature lets uses turn one
style seamlessly into another. Up to 64 additional styles can be loaded
from the internal Zip drive or a floppy drive.
The VA-76 also contains a simple 2-track Song Recorder as a
composition sketchpad. The built-in professional-quality 16-track
sequencer is great for more complete musical arrangements. For singers,
the
VA-76 can even import ".txt" files, allowing the VA-76's backlit LCD
to display lyrics users have typed on a Mac or PC.
The VA-76 offers a full complement of connections, including a
stereo 1/4-inch audio input, four individual 1/4-inch audio outputs,
Metronome output, MIDI In/Out/Thru, plus Sustain and Expression Pedal
inputs, a Footswitch input and a dedicated input for the optional
programmable FC-7 Foot Controller.
For more information, visit their web site at www.rolandus.com. | 
